A DIGNIFIED PROTEST

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17882, 30 August 1918, Page 4

A DIGNIFIED PROTEST

AGAINST MUDDLEHEADEDNESS, The leaders of the Efficiency campaign in Christchiirch noted with real concern the mental confusion of the Licensed Victuallers as evidenced by i their " dignified protost" on the publication of a cartoon which represented the Kaiser decorating Booze with an Iron : Cross and hailing him as Kamerad.. Clear-headedness shoulS have saved the victuallers from confusing things that differ. Booze in the cartoon represents neither licensees nor brewers but the Trade impersonally. Pathetic appeals to the sons that fellow-citizens who are in the trade have sent to the front in nowise affects the timeliness of the said cartoon. The cartoon is the artist's version of the deliberate statement of the Premier of Great Britain (Lloyd George) that the nation has three enemies, Germany, Austria and Drink, and the greatest of thes'e is drink. Let the Trade lodge a "dignified protest " against that. The cartoon is the artist's equivalent to the King's action in banishing Alcoholic Liquors from 'the royal palaces for the period of the war. Let the Trade assail their "undignified King." The cartoon is the voice of 1000 of the greatest men in the Mother Country—admirals, generals, authors,_ scientists and judges who conjointly appealed to the Government to bring in absolute prohibition of the "Trade." Let the local victuallers gently chastise the waywardness of these men and not spill tears on the epitome of their views in a cartoon which is both broadly and particularly true. But if the Trade can prove that booze has not held up flhe construction and repair of the King's warships, as Admiral Jellicoe says that it has—That it has' not debauched soldiers and been the immediate cause of 'the largest percentage of venereal disease, as the Bishop of Liverpool says that it has—That it has not occupied so much shipping space as would have obviated hunger queues in England last winter, or in the alternative have transported 500,000 extra American soldiers to-France.— That it did not on June 30, in Wellington city so debauch a large number of returned soldiers as to hold up Willis and Manners . i Streets and to "scunner" the whole town (vide leader in "New Zealand Times").—That it was not compelled by the New Zealand Government to go out of business in Christchurch yesterday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., so far as returned soldiers and men in uniform were concerned—lf it did not do these and 1000 other things to the detriment of the King's service and to the aiding and abetting of the King's enemies, then the cartoon shall be withdrawn. But since it is notorious that_ the Trade has done mil these things and more to the public hurt and peril the cartoon shall be publicly exhibited in Christchurch—not as reflecting on individuals, but as reflecting on a trade which at such a time as this ought to cease its being. 1